First of all we have to login to the VDP Configuration Web Interface (not the one integrated in the VMWare Web Client).

On the tab Storage we have to click “Add Data Domain”

Enter the FQDN of the data domain system and enter the credentials of the previous created DD Boost User

Enter the SNMP Community

Finish – that´s it!

Create a backup job:

Connect to the vSphere Web Client

Enter the VMWare Data Protection section and connect to the deployed VDP appliance

Create a backup job and follow the wizard

Gallery: How to create a backup job in the vSphere Web Client

Testing & Results:

So after creating the first backup job we have to trigger a manual backup of one of the protected virtual machines. Simply done through right-clicking the virtual machine in the vSphere Web Client and click “Backup now”.

Let´s have a look in the CLI of the data domain system. You can display the dd boosts stats with the following command: ddboost show stats int

First full backup

You can see a few columns with different informations, but the interesting ones are the first three.

Backup: The amount (speed) of data that is backed up. When some segments of the data are saved because of the deduplication or compression it will still be shown as written due to the Data Domain design with deduplication. Every backup is handled like a full backup but due to dedup/compression you only physically write/transfer data like it would be a incremental backup. For example in this test I was backing up a virtual machine with ~120 GB in size and if it is backed up in lets say 1 second due to dedup/compress savings we would see a value of 120 GB / s as Backup speed.

Post-comp Written: The amount that is left after the client-side deduplication & compression and really gets written

Network In: And finally what was transfered over the network

For the first full backup you can see that there is a moderate backup speed (dont forget it´s a homelab NAS with 2 disks and data is read and written to it) and already a fair amount of savings due to DD Boost mechanisms.

Now let´s start a full backup of the same machine again and let´s see what is changing.

Now you can see the amount post-comp written and transfered over the network is reduced. And when we have a look at the backup numbers we see a huge increase in the “backup (transfer) speed”. Here you can see the power of Data Domain and DD Boost when the deduplication and compression kicks in – the more data you save the more efficient the system works and you can enhance your retention time.

Restore Tab:

Summary:

That´s it – in three easy steps we have deployed VDP + virtual EMC Data Domain and integrated them. What´s the benefit?

VDP(A) is a part of vSphere 6 and now at zero cost

Data Domain: Deduplication and compression saves a lot of space and makes it very efficient

Data Domain: Self healing filesystem and regular healthchecks make sure your backup WILL work when you need them

When you want to remove the data domain from the VDP you have to use a CLI command right now. Delete all backup jobs in the VDP related to the Data Domain as target and then execute the following vdp cli command: